Playing in the Cathedral: Music, Race, and Status in New SpainThroughout Spanish colonial America, limpieza de sangre (literally, purity of blood) determined an individual's status within the complex system of social hierarchy called casta. Within this socially stratified culture, those individuals at the top were considered to have the highest calidad an all encompassing estimation of a person's social status. At the top of the social pyramid were the Peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain, who controlled most